Three weeks down and one to go

Mistie finished another week of radiation and only has one week left.

She is feeling well and getting a little strength back.

Fathers Day

Fathers Day and we are over halfway on Misites treatment!!!

After stopping her steroid she is feeling much better. She had a headache on Tuesday and threw up, but she has been doing well since then. She still has trouble standing, walking and gets dizzy when she stands up, but we are optimistic that she will start to feel stronger as time goes on.

She took a little spill on the floor at the doctor office on Friday so were keeping a close eye on her.

Monday at radiation

Mistie has been taking a steroid to help control the swelling in her brain caused by the cancer as well as the radiation treatment. This steroid is awful. The side effects are that she has lost all mobility in her legs, only having the ability to pick them up a few inches, her face and limbs have swollen, and she is doing crazy things like trying to turn the TV off with her phone and asking nonsensical questions. Unfortunately all of these symptoms could also be due to swelling in the brain. So the dilemma was do we stop taking the steroid and risk increased swelling or do we continue taking the steroid and allow the side effects to continue to escalate. Her normal doctor was out of town last week and his replacement tried to increase the dose of the steroid as she felt it was likely the swelling that was causing side effects. It didn't make sense to us since these symptoms started long before we started the radiation and we have done this whole chemo thing before without any of these symptoms. After considering this we talked with our radiation oncologist and decided that instead of doubling her dose we would cut it in half and see how it effected her. I think it was the right decision as she is much more alert and her cognitive thinking has improved. Today we met again with the radiation oncologist and he was pleased with how improved she was and told us to discontinue the steroid. It will still take some time for her strength to be regained, but as long as she doesn't start experiencing headaches we are hopeful that she can start to feel better.

Weekend around the house

Spent the weekend just relaxing. We went with Misties sisters (Carmell and Sharla) to Brick Oven in Provo. Derick had earned a spotlight student award for reading and was anxious to cash in his free pizza and root beer certificate. We tried most of their pizzas and I would say that the BBQ was the best.

After lunch the rain had finally let up and I helped Mistie climb on the riding mower and let her mow the lawn. If you think that was inconsiderate of me to let her mow the lawn, you don't know Mistie very well. She said it was the most fun she has had in a long time. It is a little liberating when you think about it doing circles on the lawn, sun in your face, wind in your hair or not hair... why not.

Friday in SLC

Friday we went up to a doctor appointment in SLC at the new IHC hospital in Murray that you can see off the freeway at 53rd. It is really nice. That hospital replaced the old LDS hospital right above downtown SLC in the Avenues. It was about time they got a new hospital. In 2004 Mistie spent a full month in the LDS hospital and it was pure torture. Everything was old and outdated and the only place to go for a walk was in the parking garage. A few times we talked about going and saying thank you to the people who took care of her there. Well actually I talked about it; the only way she said she would ever go back to that hospital was if she was unconscious. Honestly, I cant blame her.

Calvin at the Dentist

Last week Calvin had a little bump on his gums so we took him into the dentist. It was a root canal and it did hurt a little. He didn't cry and whoever decided to start handing out prizes at the dentist... genius.

Look Good Feel Better Class

Today we are at the Look Good Feel Better class for cancer patients. Sadly, Mistie was the only one who got a makeup kit... but I did pick up some great tips on highlighting my cheekbones.

A Quiet Weekend

We had a quiet weekend without the boys. We had my parents stop by to trade us cars and bring me a bag of oatmeal chocolate chip cookies. I made my dad promise not to bring it back with a trail of speeding tickets. It was getting difficult for Mistie to get into our SUV so now with the sedan it makes it easier to get in and out. We also went and bought a walker for her to use around the house. Over the weekend we went to the store and I barely caught her before she fell, so yesterday we borrowed a wheelchair from the hospital.

Boys are off to Lake Powell

Derick and Calvin are headed down to Lake Powell with Misites entire family until Tuesday. Josiah has a share on a houseboat and they have been excited to go. We just packed up swimsuits and a ton of sunscreen and sent them for the ride.

New Set of Radiation Treatments

We are here for the 1st of 22 radiation treatments today.

Since Mistie was diagnosed with the blood clot, I have been giving her a daily shot in the stomach. Well yesterday we had her blood drawn and her platelets were very low, so the good news is no more shots.

Unfortunately, her blood pressure was also high 158/107 so she is now taking some blood pressure medicine as high blood pressure can cause the tumors to bleed.

Mrs Shine

Cant wait to get started with Radiation on Thursday. The sooner I get it done the sooner I can stop taking this steroid. Hopefully when I am off that my legs will have the strength to start driving again. Everybody has to have a bald picture, plus Derick and Calvin like to have a turn wearing it and making faces... Glad we got our family pictures when we did.